THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXVII.] OCTOBER. 1904. [No. 497. 



LIFE -HISTORY OF LYCMNA ARGIADES. 

 By F. W. Frohawk, M.B.O.U., F.E.S. 



Since the discovery of this species in Dorsetshire, in 1885, 

 several works on British butterflies have been issued, but there 

 appears to be no description published of either the egg or pupa, 

 and the descriptions given of the larva in the various books are 

 obviously copied from Dr. Lang's * Butterflies of Europe,' where 

 it states that the larva is "pale green, with a darker dorsal 

 stripe, dark lateral streaks, and light hrown and white spots.'' 



By the kindness of Dr. Chapman and Mr. Hugh Main in sup- 

 plying me with eggs of this interesting species, I have been 

 enabled to work out its life-history ; therefore have now pleasure 

 in giving complete descriptions of its various stages. The butter- 

 flies were captured in the South of France in July last by Dr, 

 Chapman, who sent them direct to Mr. Hugh Main ; he in turn 

 kindly sent me some of the ova he obtained from them, which I 

 received on July 25th, with a note saying they had been laid the 

 day before. They were deposited in a cluster at the base of the 

 leaves of Lotus cornicidatus, also a few single eggs in other parts 

 of the plant. Undoubtedly, in a wild state, they are laid singly, 

 and never in clusters, on account of the cannibalistic habits of 

 the larvae. 



The egg is very small, being exactly the same size in diameter 

 as the egg of L. minima, i. e. -^q in., and j^^ ^^- ^^^8^ ; it 

 resembles the egg of L. icarus in shape. It is circular and com- 

 pressed, of a clear pale greenish-blue colour, but varies both in 

 extent of the ground colour and in the structure of the reticula- 

 tions, which are white, resembling frosted glass, and cover the 

 whole surface in an irregular network pattern ; in some the 

 pattern is almost like ordinary network, forming squares, and 

 others have the cells triangular, but all are irregular, and some 

 have the juncture of the reticulations much more prominent than 

 others. The upper surface is very slightly sunken, being almost 



ENTOM. — OCTOBER. 1904. Y 



